Burnside Marketing explains the benefits of Pinterest

Steve Burnside, owner of Burnside Marketing, explains why business owners should be using the popular social media platform

Many people are hesitant to join Pinterest. Local Author and Marketer Steve Burnside was one of them. “My wife is addicted to it,” he said, “and she is always talking about it, I thought there isn’t anything on there for me, or is there?” he wondered. He gave it a try, and he was surprised about what he found. Here are his three top reasons business owners need to use Pinterest:

1) It’s creative- “I am in a field that I have to be creative every day,” Burnside said. “As most people in this situation will tell you, creative block is horrible!” Sitting in front of a computer, trying to come up with an idea, with no creative juices flowing can be extremely frustrating. Pinterest is a great tool to get over the “block.”

2) You can show off a bit- Pinterest gives you the opportunity to get your products in front of thousands of people. Just as with any social marketing, the more visibility you have, the better. If you are on Facebook and Google+ right now adding Pinterest increases your platforms by 33%. The power of Pinterest is especially strong if you sell physical product (think furniture, jewelry, clothes, etc.) because you can show off exactly what customers buy from you!

3) You can link to your site-This is the most powerful aspect of Pinterest and a huge differentiating factor from platforms like Instagram. You can link your Pins right back to your website. So let’s go back to our jewelry example. If you sell jewelry, you can take a picture of a piece, Pin it and have a link to the “Buy” page if someone clicks your Pin. This is a business owners dream. Can you imaging the traffic this can drive?

“But be cautious,” he warns. “The app store tells me Pinterest is free, I have learned the hard way it is not free, just ask Home Depot and Lowe’s how much my wife has spent because of Pinterest projects. While I am a little tongue-in-cheek here, it is true! In less than 12 hours I had urges to open a Home Depot credit card and go crazy!”

Steve Burnside is the Author of “Social Marketing War Room” and owns Burnside Marketing, a Marketing firm located in Paso Robles, CA. Burnside Marketing specializes in websites, social management, video, podcasts and webinars. Steve can be reached at steve@burnsidemarketing.com.